The present invention generally relates to medical diagnosis imaging systems, and in particular to a radiographic x-ray projection imaging system employing a solid state x-ray imager.
Conventional thoracic imaging generally has been performed with x-ray projection imaging. Typically, a patient stands with his or her chest against a wall bucky system as an x-ray technologist positions the wall bucky system and an x-ray tube at an appropriate height before taking an x-ray image of the region of interest. Similarly, other common views, including cervical and lumbar spine, skull, sinus, shoulder, and abdomen, may be imaged with such a static positioning system.
Tomographic techniques, or body section radiography, may also be used to facilitate imaging of anatomical structures that may be obscured by adjacent structures. In such instances, the structures that interfere with the structure to be imaged can be "blurred out," leaving the structure of interest clearly in view for unobstructed imaging. One of the most common variants of tomography is that of linear tomography. In a linear tomographic examination, a patient lies on a table bucky that is moved horizontally in the opposite direction as the lateral motion of an x-ray tube suspended from a ceiling system. Simultaneous to this lateral movement, the x-ray tube rotates to keep the beam directed at the same anatomy throughout the imaging process.
Although universal systems currently exist which allow for conventional radiographic and linear tomographic x-ray examinations, these systems require a bucky apparatus that uses conventional x-ray film and oscillating anti-scatter grids. A radiographic imaging system, for example shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,567 to Khutoryansky et. al., permits an x-ray technologist to choose either a conventional radiographic mode or a linear tomographic mode. However, a bucky apparatus and oscillating anti-scatter grids are necessary, resulting in a system which can be unreliable and susceptible to breakdown, as well as incurring the time and expense of conventional film development.
Additionally, a mechanical linkage between the x-ray tube and the imager is sometimes used in imaging systems, leading to inordinately time-consuming equipment installation, complexity, and mechanical unreliability. Moreover, in radiographic imaging systems without automatic alignment of the x-ray tube and the x-ray film, an x-ray technologist must manually align the imaging device (including the conventional film and the bucky) with the x-ray tube, resulting in imaging examinations that tend to be overly time-consuming.
A need, therefore, exists for an improved radiographic system which does not require a bucky apparatus or oscillating anti-scatter grids. A need also exists for an improved radiographic system that allows an x-ray technologist to perform efficient and effective imaging examinations without the need for mechanical linkages previously required to connect an x-ray tube to a bucky apparatus.